REVIEW: ‘Kick-Ass’ kicks its own ass with its intensity

Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass and Chloë Grace Moretz as Hit-Girl (‘Kick-Ass’ official site)

Let’s get this out of the way right now: “Kick-Ass” makes its comic book source material look downright anemic. And we’re talking about Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s already over-the-top thumbing of their noses at comic book conventions within the medium.

Thing is, an everyday geek who wants to be a costumed hero just like the spandex-clad do-gooders he reads about in the comics actually WORKS as a comic book in a magnificently meta sort of way. But as a live-action movie so insanely adherent to its source material in so many blood-spurting, sword-slicing, profanity-spewing ways? Well… let’s just say “Kick-Ass” kicks its own ass with its intensity.

Like the comic, the film’s premise is a hilarious twist on funny books and comic book movies alike: Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a high school nobody who loves his comics but can’t get any love from the opposite sex. Then one day Dave has an epiphany to become the same kind of comic book hero he reads about and in process maybe do some good and get the girl, too.

As Dave’s buddy tells him, anybody crazy enough to do that in the real world would get killed within a day. And for Dave’s costumed alter-ego aptly named Kick-Ass, that nearly happens. But Dave soldiers on and as fate and the search for a lost kitty would have it, Kick-Ass ends up in the right place at the right time to save a guy from gang violence and become an Internet sensation.

But doing good in this real world means crossing paths with a really sinister mob boss (Mark Strong), not to mention a costumed vigilante named Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) who really know what they’re doing and have the mega arsenal and costumes to prove it.

And therein all violent wackiness ensues. Like a Tarantino flick with capes, “Kick-Ass” explodes with a rapid-fire shower of bullets, blades and blood peppered with f-bombs aplenty. Believe me, if you think Hit-Girl mowing down mobsters is intense cartoon violence, wait till you get a load her dropping the saltiest language ever to pop out of a kid’s pie-hole on the big screen.

Moretz clearly steals the show as the potty-mouthed little hellion with a gift for firearms and swords. But Hit-Girl awesomeness aside, “Kick-Ass” can’t just handle its own fervor.

Just when you think “Kick-Ass” is an ultra-violent tongue-in-cheek satire of comic book movies, the film delivers a few heart-wrenching moments that take you out of the (daresay) fun and remind you this is all supposed to be happening in the “real world,” not a comic book. But this IS happening in a movie. And both mediums just don’t work together at the same time. Especially with a very movie-like ending too ridiculously gonzo even for, well, a comic book.

Just the same, fans of the “Kick-Ass” comic should dig it, especially for the fleshing out of the book’s colorful costumes and the animating of Romita’s strong art to tell Big Daddy’s origin. But folks who don’t know the comic from Adam are in for a lot more than they may have bargained for. And I don’t just mean Cage’s very Adam West performance as Big Daddy.

“Kick-Ass” is all about gonzo comic book movie action tweaked out beyond reason. Trust me, you’ll know soon enough if you can handle the beating it delivers on the two mediums — and all too often on itself as well.